AI is already integrated into our lives in many ways. It's changing the way we work, search and communicate. And while that kind of AI use may not be for everyone, perhaps one thing we can all agree on is how it is progressing medicine through breakthroughs that may have not happened without it. At least, not as quickly.

Researchers are using AI to understand cancer at a level of detail that would have been difficult to imagine just a decade ago. Rather than treating every patient with the same type of cancer in the same way, scientists are working toward treatments based on the unique genetic makeup of each person's tumor.

And there are encouraging signs that more personalized cancer treatments could make a real difference. In October, researchers reported promising Phase 3 clinical trial results for an experimental personalized cancer vaccine developed by Moderna and Merck.

When combined with the immunotherapy drug Keytruda, the vaccine reduced the relative risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 42% compared with Keytruda alone.

The vaccine isn't FDA-approved yet, and the trial doesn't establish that generative AI invented the treatment. But the results offer an important example of what personalized cancer medicine can achieve.

Meanwhile, AI is helping researchers tackle another part of the challenge: understanding exactly what makes one person's cancer different from another's.

One of the biggest challenges in treating cancer is that two people with the same diagnosis can respond very differently to the same medication.

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